I want others opinion on this.
Norton/Symantec Ghost is the best there is to backup your system and other discs. The disc image backup can be restored to any disc if your system crashes.
I use Windows XP Backup utility, making ASR with diskette boot, Total and Incremental backups, and its' important that the backup files are stored in another media/disc than the system and data discs. I have installed two discs in the PC, one for system and data and one for backup files. The best backup media may be an external tape but that is for now to complex for me. I'm not 100% sure the Windows XP Backup is enough but I think so, for now, read the backup doumentation to find out.
I crashed my PC in the summer of 2005, had no good backup, just partly, spent 3-4 weeks to reestablish the contents, a lot of data and applications, and some data were forever lost, some of it also not missed for one day.
Regards,
Otto
http://www.navigate3d.com